Run, Run, Run
by musicnotes093
Summary: A love story in three chapters—equal parts romantic, equal parts confusion, with a hearty side of creepiness. Hey. Who said all love stories have to be perfect?
1. i

**Title:** _"__Run, Run, Run"_

**Rating:** T

**Genre:** Romance, Humor

**Character(s):** Leo and an OC, mainly, but Adam, Bree, Chase and the family are in here, too

**Pairing(s):** Leo/OC, some Donald/Tasha, and some Douglas/Janice

**Summary:** A love story in three chapters—equal parts romantic, equal parts confusion, with a hearty side of creepiness. Hey. Who said all love stories have to be perfect?

**Notes:** This actually started off as a standalone story that stemmed from a song cover, but then as it went along it began to develop a plot hole the size of Texas. Then an idea from the forty-sixth chapter of The A-Bionic Chronicles sounded like a good fit, so I decided to merge it with this. Long story short (no pun intended), this is a loosely complementary fic to the Chronicles and so can stand by itself.

Anyways, I have to give a shout out to the lovely 88keys because one of our conversations actually prevented this entire idea from being vaulted. ;)

Just a fair warning: this story involves a break-up of a canon pairing and so has a running theme of moving on. If it's not something that you think's for you, that's okay. I'll understand. :)

I hope you enjoy!

* * *

i.

If Leo is to be very, very, _very_ honest with himself, he can admit that he's not as much as a looker as his older brothers. He doesn't think this because he has low self-esteem, no. In fact, he knows he can hold up his own when it comes to the area of physical appearance like them. It's just that, he also knows that he's no knockout like Adam, whose tall, dark, handsome and muscular gifts constantly leave girls swooning behind him whenever he passes by. He's no Chase either, who, despite being a little shy and awkward, actually have a number of the female kind secretly crushing on him (like four of the girls in Bree's Alpha Girls group who always make it a point at lunch to walk by his table as a herd to wave at him then giggle when he greets them back).

He's just…Leo. Tall-ish, lanky, and often mistaken as a pre-teen Leo.

That's why it catches him by surprise when he notices her staring at him. She's gazing at him from the other side of the room, her bright, blue eyes oddly closing a bit of the gap between them. He thinks at first that they just accidentally looked at each other at the same time, so he smiles politely at her before turning his attention back to the board to pretend to listen to Chase while he continues his rather fervid discourse regarding mechanics of bionic technology.

He waits for a minute or two before looking back at her to see if she's still staring.

She is.

Unlike the first time, they linger in their looks a little longer. She's still not smiling, but she's also still not hostile. She only looks at him as if he's more interesting than anything else in that room – which kind of frazzles him and makes him nervous at the same time. He almost thinks it's creepy, but then again what guy in his right mind would find a stunner like her staring at him creepy?

Out of courtesy and instinct, he looks away again.

Well, he thinks, maybe she's not the typical type that people think of when they hear the word 'stunner.' She has gorgeous features, no doubt, including those blue eyes and those killer cheekbones of hers. But her hair, indecisively blonde and dark brown, is a slight mess of waves cascading at either side of her face down to her waist. Her brows, too; they're not plucked to the death like the ones those runway models have. They're a bit on the…well, on the normal girl side. They're not perfect, and that's what makes them beautiful.

He guesses this is why he thinks she's a stunner.

He looks back at her again, and he finds her still staring. He frowns at her this time because now, he really doesn't get it. He's also a bit offended. Why would a girl like her, beautiful in her imperfection and formidable with her bionics, be staring at a boy like him? For this long, he should add?

The class finishes a few minutes later. As the rest of the class make a beeline towards different directions, he approaches her. He thought she would have moved away, but she doesn't. She waits for him and manages a smile in the process. "Hi," he starts awkwardly. "So, uh, you're staring at me."

Her smile only stretches farther. She doesn't say anything.

He blinks. This is really getting terribly uncomfortable, he thinks. It's also starting to drive him nuts. So, for the sake of his own sanity, he jokes, "Please don't tell me it's because I'm beautiful, 'cause I'm seriously going to flip."

Her smile stretches wider until it breaks into a chuckle. She stands up, picks up her tablet, and then says, "Then I won't." She spins around towards the Training Center and heads there.

As she walks away, leaving a warm scent of coconut and lime in her trail, he is more puzzled.

* * *

It happens a few more times during the week, him catching her staring. It mostly occurs during Chase's class, but once or twice during lunch it happens, too. She keeps looking at him with the same kind of expression. It always sends him in an emotional tilt-a-whirl: it'll make him feel curious, then self-conscious, then anxious, then flattered, then embarrassed, then curious again. He doesn't want to make a big deal out of it, mostly because he doesn't want to be known as paranoid, but he's been tempted to approach her again and ask.

After it happens again for the fourth time, he comes to, not her, but his older sister. "Bree?"

"Yeah."

"What does it mean when a girl stares at you?"

Bree frowns guardedly. "Staring at _me_?"

He nods.

Bree searches around the lunchroom intensely. "Who? Which one?" she asks.

"No, not _you_," he assures her. "_Me._"

Bree looks back at him. "You?"

"Yeah."

"Staring at _you_."

"Yes."

Bree thinks about it. "Hm. I don't know," she says. She picks at the salmon on her nearly empty plate. "There are many reasons why girls stare at guys. Could be what you're wearing at the time. What did you have on?"

He shrugs. "What I normally wear around here: the you-can't-be-a-mentor uniform," he says casually.

Bree eyes him drily. "Could be too that you were being a smarty pants," she returns.

"No. Chase was taking care of that part."

Bree clucks her tongue in irritation. "You know what I mean," she says.

Leo shoots a quick wide smile at her before saying, "Yes, I do. And no, I wasn't. I was just sitting in class, and she's just staring. Every time."

The frown comes back on Bree's face. "Maybe there was something on your face."

He thinks back on it. "I hope not," he says, slightly bothered by the suggestion. "I mean, she wasn't laughing or anything."

Bree thinks it over. When a possibility occurs to her, she smirks. "Maybe she _did_ see something," she says knowingly.

"What."

"Your face," she says with a chuckle. "She likes it."

"What? That's not even – I don't – I mean, no," he says. He shakes his head, almost at the brink of laughing because what Bree said is just ridiculous. "No."

Bree scoots closer to her little brother, and it makes him feel a little bit more embarrassed. "Oh, come on. What's so impossible about that?" she asks.

"She's bionic," he says. "I don't know if you've noticed, but with the exception of you? All the girls in the Academy are either on Adam's fan club or Chase's fan club. And they're all pretty devoted."

"You're exaggerating."

"I wish I was," Leo sighs. He hunches over his cold plate of food. He shrugs. "It's probably just a prank that they're playing on me, see how I'll react to it. Maybe she'll stop staring if I ignore her."

Bree watches him with concern as he takes a bite out of his turkey sandwich, because she finally understands. "Leo, you're not…saying no because of what happened to you and you-know-who, are you?"

Leo's chewing slows down to a stop. He glances at Bree then says, "You can say her name, you know."

"I know I can. I just don't want to," Bree says indignantly. She breathes in air then exhales sharply when her brother doesn't say anything because she feels sorry for him. "You never really talked about it," she prompts kindly.

Leo continues eating. "There's nothing to talk about," he says quietly.

"Dude. You're going through a break-up."

Leo spins towards his sister and says, "It's not a break-up." He regrets it immediately afterwards, because he didn't mean it to come across as angry. He knows his sister's just trying to help, but after two months since it happened he's still not completely sure what to do or how to react. So, in a gesture of apology, he turns back to his sandwich. He picks it up but doesn't eat it. "A break-up suggests that the two people involved were in a relationship. Apparently, we weren't really," he explains. "So we didn't break up. We just stopped being something."

Bree stares at him. She wants to say something, he knows she does, but she doesn't. Instead, she smiles. "Well, the beauty of having a sister is that we're good with things like these," she said. "Space movie marathon at eight?"

Leo slowly looks at her. "I _have_ been wanting to see 'Interstellar'," he muses out loud.

"I'll have two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream ready."

Leo thinks about it. "Make mine cake batter?"

Bree chuckles. "You got it."

* * *

For the following week after that, Leo doesn't notice the girl anymore. He's not completely sure if it's because she hasn't been in class or if it's because he's feeling much better that small things have started to forego his attention. Surprisingly, that movie night with Bree did help. The sugar, the yelling at the TV and the tearjerker moments in the films did wonders. Adam and Chase even commented on his better mood. Of course, when they asked how that came to be, he didn't tell them. Bree told him not to because it will ruin it.

Admittedly, what happened still hurts. To find out that the special girl in his life, who had been with him for three years, doesn't like him 'that way' – well, it's a heart crusher. And for her to be his first love? It surprises him that he hasn't crawled under a rock yet and died.

But he's learning that it's going to be okay. He just needs to get himself together, focus on his trainings, and move on.

* * *

He guesses getting constantly excluded helps in taking his mind off of things; it gives him a convenient excuse to be sulky and sour. It also gives him the space he needs.

Though, he wishes those kids wouldn't do it so brutally.

His stepfather had generously rented a movie theater that Friday so that the Academy students could have their first movie night in the city. They were terrifically excited, of course, and had promised to follow Adam's, Bree's and Chase's instructions. The group is big enough that even he was also delegated some directing rights over the students.

But as always, as soon as the Academy's Founder was out of sight, the bionic teens utterly disregarded that part about him having some control at the helm. They ignored virtually everything he said. He had to leave five minutes after the movie began because he had to look for three people in his group, all of whom had gotten lost and had gone into other theaters because they didn't listen.

When he came back with them, he found that someone had decided to take his jacket from his seat as a prank.

Now, as they're all making their way to a restaurant to eat, he's walking a few yards behind everyone, shivering from the chilly San Francisco evening. He watches them unhappily as the pack laughs at something that one of his siblings probably said. He wouldn't have minded this lone wolf situation if he has his jacket. At least he can just turn around and wander off on his own.

"The key to fit in is not to fit in."

Leo sharply turns towards the speaker with a gasp. He slaps a palm on his ribcage when he sees her. "You scared me," he says to the girl, his heart racing madly inside his chest. His brows wrinkle. "How long have you been standing there?"

Her bottom lip juts upwards. "Since we got out of the movie theater," she says.

He stares at her. "You know, if you keep doing things like that, the other students will start thinking that you're weird," he points out.

"Everybody in the Academy is weird," she says. "By the way…" she holds up what has been in her hand.

"My jacket!" He snatches it from her then puts it on quickly. As he zips it up, he asks, "Did you take this?"

"Yeah. From Bob," she says. "He found it on the floor while we were walking out."

He looks at his jacket with disgust, especially as he imagines the sticky things that had probably gotten on it. He's tempted to take it off, but he doesn't since it's too cold. Maybe, he decides, he'll just shower later. "Thanks," he tells her.

She shrugs.

"Your name's Amaranth, isn't it?" he asks.

"Yeah."

He smirks. "Didn't want to be a Donald, did you?"

"Nope," she says.

"Okay," he says. "I'm Leo, by the way."

"I know."

An awkward silence befalls them for a while, him not knowing what to say and her probably not caring to say anything. As an inversion, he turns his sights ahead to look for the group and finds them turning the corner four blocks away. "You still have time to catch up to them," he says.

"What about you? Where are you going?" she asks.

"Ah, I think I'm going to walk home."

Her brows rise. "Your house is nearly eighty blocks away from here," she points out.

"Well, I was thinking of walking the first twenty and then riding a taxi the rest of the way due to budget," he says. He then looks at her. "Unless you have super speed."

She shrugs. "I'll walk with you."

He hesitates for a second. He doesn't think it's a good idea at first because he's not really in the mood for an awkward walk home at the moment. He also doesn't want to be accused of influencing another student to separate from the group when his stepfather specifically told them to stay together. Plus, he just wants to be alone right now.

But he reconsiders, mostly because it's Friday night, and he supposes it won't hurt to hang out with somebody for a change. "Okay," he says, nodding towards the opposite direction of where everybody else is going before he begins walking.

She follows suit.

As the distance between them and the busy business areas increase, the more the city around them darkens. It's pleasant how the artificial lights slowly fade as they walk by, decreasing in brightness one by one, while the light from the moon, silver and white as it bathes the earth below, wins out. He tries not to be too taken by his thoughts and to be conscious of her being there. San Francisco is not a terribly bad city when it comes to crime, but he knows the world well enough that ten o'clock at night is not the safest time for teenagers to roam the streets by themselves.

No doubt, the two of them are more than equipped to hold up their own should the situation call for it. However, after being repeatedly taught how to be a gentleman growing up by his mother, he understands that it's his responsibility to protect the girl and to look out for her safety.

While they wait at their third pedestrian stop light, he asks, "So…color or flower?"

She tilts her head towards him questioningly. "Hm?"

"'Amaranth,'" he clarifies. "Did you choose it as your name because it's a nice color or because it's a pretty flower?"

Her features clear as she thinks about it. She smiles. "Both, I guess."

He nods ponderously just as the light tells them to walk. "What'd you think of the movie?" he asks.

She takes a deep breath as she forms her opinion. "It's good," she says. "The storytelling was done well, and I enjoyed the characters. I would have darkened the lighting on scene thirty-eight a little bit, maybe choose an acoustic accompaniment there, too, but it still works. Scene fifty-four was my favorite."

His wrinkled brows rise questioningly. "Scene fifty-four?" he repeats.

"Oh! The scene with the boy not wanting to let go of his friends," she says.

He blinks, still incredulous. "You were really counting the scenes as they went along?"

"Yeah." She frowns at him. "Weren't you?"

"No," he replies. "I was trying to focus on what's happening."

"Oh."

He looks over at her and sees the thoughtful look on her face, deeply ingrained as something she is processing confused her. For whatever reason, he laughs, and it's the kind of laugh that makes him feel light and unhinged. When she looks at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion, he waves it away. "I'm sorry," he says. "It's just – It's okay. It's your first movie. Next time, when we watch another one, just keep in mind that movies are mostly there to be enjoyed and not studied."

She says nothing. She just returns her eyes to what's ahead and keeps walking.

He continues on, too, since she doesn't seem offended. They walk for two blocks without speaking, until he finally says, "You said the key to fit in is not to fit in."

"Yeah."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, just be your own person," she says. "You're trying so hard to be one of the popular kids in the Academy that you're not acting like yourself."

He smiles wryly, because her words offend him. He stops. "Not acting like myself?" he asks.

She stops, too. She looks him straight in the eyes, her bright blue orbs piercing him straight through. "You're not happy," she clarifies.

Any thoughts of disputing what she said earlier evaporate, and he is left staring at her blankly.

"You don't seem like it anymore to me, at least," she says.

He smiles a small smile at her. He doesn't agree with her, not one hundred percent, but a small part of him can't deny that what she said rings somewhat true. So, he just asks, "Really?"

She walks closer to him. "You don't laugh as much," she says. "And, when we first met you, you talked to everybody. Now you don't. You're just…withdrawn."

"Well, it's kind of hard to talk to people who don't want to talk to you, don't you think?" he asks.

"It is," she agrees. "So why are you trying to fit in with them?"

Leo thinks about it. A grin begins to stretch across his face, because she got him with that question. He chuckles. "I just don't like the idea of being alone again," he tells her honestly.

"Well, you're not alone now," she says finally.

Leo narrows his eyes. "So, you – Are you saying you actually want to be friends with me?"

She smiles. "Okay."

He thinks about the new development incredulously, because in no way is she really willing to be his friend. Then, when an answer comes to him, he nods. "Oh. Oh, okay. I get it," he declares.

She frowns. "Get what?"

He smiles conspiratorially. "You want me to put in a good word for you, don't you?" he says. "Okay. Since you walked with me this far and since you got my jacket for me, I'll do it. Who did you want me to talk to for you, Adam or Chase?"

"What?"

"Do you like Adam better, or do you like Chase better?"

"Uh, neither?"

"Oh, come on. You have the Alpha Girls as your pack," he explains. "You must like one of them."

"What does that have to do with the two of us?"

"They're gonna make fun of you if you befriend me," he says with a chuckle.

"Um, my sisters don't decide who I will be friends with, I do," she says sassily.

He holds up his hands. "Okay? I'm sorry?" he says, not quite sure how to maneuver around a situation that involves a spunky teenage girl. He thought she was the quiet girl of the group? "So, this is for real. We're really going to be friends?" he asks. "No fine prints?"

She says nothing, only stares at him.

He still doesn't believe her, but he decides to play along on the chance that she does mean what she says. Plus, he does like her company. He could use a rest from being the social outcast for a bit, even if this 'friendship' turns out to be a complete sham in the end. "Well, if you insist," he mutters and then walks ahead.

They continue on in silence for a few more blocks. The cold breeze whipping past them causes him to shiver a little bit and urges him to start counting how much farther they have to go before they can hail a taxi. While counting up from where they are, he remembers to glance at Amaranth to see how she's doing.

He feels bad when he sees that she has fallen behind. She still has the stubborn, displeased look on her face as she frowns toward the ground, but with her arms crossed tightly in front of her, hugging as much warmth as she can to herself to combat the chill, she looks quite fragile and small. He feels worse then, because he also sees that the jacket she has on is not as thick as it should be.

He stops walking then and waits for her.

When she catches up, she finally notices that he's looking at her. She stops, too.

Leo unzips his jacket, pulls it off of himself, and then drapes it over her. "Just make sure none of the stuff that got on it get on you," he says with a sad smile, because he remembers when he used to do something like this for Janelle. He watches her pull her hair from underneath the jacket then gratefully look up at him as she pulls his jacket closer to her. He adds, "You don't want to smell like the floor of a movie theater."

She smiles at him, like she understands exactly what he's thinking.

He feels pathetic and discouraged, because he can't believe he's still not over it. It's been months, and here he is again moping. He must reek of lameness right now for being like this. He nods ahead. "Five more blocks, and then we can get a ride home," he tells Amaranth, desperately schooling his features to make him look okay.

She holds out a hand. "Here," she says. "Take it."

He stares at her empty palm and then blinks at her.

"You look like you could use a good break-up playlist to sleep to tonight," she says. "And I have just the thing for that."

His brows wrinkle. "Where are we going?" he asks.

She grins. "You'll see," she says.

He looks at her with a cautious look. Nonetheless, he takes her hand.

As soon as they touch, he feels a spark.

He hears it, too.

He shakes his hand to rid it of the sting. "Static electricity," he explains bashfully.

"Okay," she says, somewhat confused. She holds out her hand again. "Take two?"

He holds onto her hand. He notes that it's slightly calloused but soft. Her grasp is warm, and it makes him feel at ease. "Now what?" he asks her.

She looks at him with a suspicious smirk before the city around him dissipates in particles of black.

When the colors and everything materialized, he finds both of them standing at the capsule dormitories.

"You have _geo-leaping_?" he asks as she walks towards a table.

"You asked me if I had super speed. See? I didn't lie to you," she says as she pulls out an earphone and her tablet from a compartment. She hurries back to him excitedly then ushers him out the door. "Come on. Let's go to the cafeteria. There should still be some leftovers from lunch that we can snack on while we listen."

* * *

They huddle together by the fridge at the lunchroom as they put together the ultimate break-up playlist. Leo starts off distantly, not wanting to participate, but after having to deflect Amaranth from trying songs with bad words in it, plus getting involved in a rather heavy discussion of lyrics and music, he ends up enjoying everything.

Two and a half large bags of Sun Chips, a bag of gummy bears, and seven cans of iced tea later, a finished list of forty-eight break up songs sit in Amaranth's tablet. They listen to the first eight together, discuss it, laugh about it, before she unplugs her earphones to hand her tablet to him. She tells him to take it for tonight and give it back tomorrow.

He says okay. Then, after placing it inside a bag that they find at the kitchen, he tells her it's time for him to go.

He comes back to the quarters that night with almost everyone in his family yelling at him. He guesses he enjoyed the walk and the playlist building so much that he neglected to check his phone, which, in its silenced state, didn't really do well in alerting him to the dozens of missed calls and quite frantic text messages from his siblings asking him where he had gone to.

He just apologizes, because he didn't mean to worry them by doing what he did.

When he settles down to sleep that night, he pulls out the tablet and plugs his headphones in.

He falls asleep after the sixth song, his consciousness ebbing out with a happy thought and none at all of his heartbreak.

* * *

_to be continued._


	2. ii

_I'd like to thank pupgirl123, LRW, AllAmericanSlurp, humanusscriptor, and ShyMusic for the nice reviews! I really appreciate it guys!_

_Okay, few notes about this chapter and in general: _

_First, this chapter holds the record of being the _longest_ chapter I've ever written - 9000+ words in total. I thought about splitting it, but everything just comes together as the second stage in what's happening so I didn't. It's going to be a long reading!_

_Second, __let's imagine that the Bionic Academy is on an actual island, okay? _

_Lastly, in case you wonder later on (MUCH later on), it's "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran. ;)_

_Please enjoy this next chapter!_

* * *

ii.

The weekend, for him, was a busy one, so he didn't see her in those two days. His grandparents claimed ownership of him the entire Saturday. He had to mow their lawn for them, and he had to help his grandfather with his newly set-up vegetable garden. At lunch, they took him out to eat then spoiled him a little afterwards by taking him on a shopping spree.

He enjoyed being with them as it had been quite a while since the three of them had time alone together.

A good part of Sunday was filled with more chores for them before they returned him to his family.

They gave him money before they parted ways. How much they handed him is definitely not something a teenager would frown upon, but he was too tired to even mentally spend it. When he got to his room, he pretty much just cleared out his weekend bag (a habit that he's recently developed from having gone on quite a few missions), deposited the money on a safe place, and then crashed on his bed and slept like a log until this morning when it was time for him to get ready for another day at the Academy.

He's still a little sore, honestly, and he's really feeling it now as he sits at the lunch table, by himself, with the soft seats teasing him of comfort he longs to get back to after the day is done. He stares at the lunch he chose—grilled ham and cheese sandwich, with a Fuji apple on the side—and dreams of sleeping. Despite the noise and activity going on around him, he slowly fails to stay awake.

He only snaps out of it when someone takes a seat beside him and he gets a whiff of a sweet mango scent.

She smiles at him when he turns towards her. "Hey," she greets him before fixing the utensils and the plate on her tray.

He looks at her in a half daze because his brain and his mouth have yet to come to accord. He soon takes notice of her group slowly bypassing his table while darting their sister puzzled glances. "They're looking," he tells her quietly, catching the eye of one of the girls.

"Of course they'll look. I just left them," she says distractedly as she mentally puts in order which food she's going to eat first. "So how was your weekend?"

He scans the room and sees three separate tables, each manned by his siblings, crowded with different students. "You're not going to take advantage of the Eat Lunch with a Mentor program going on right now?" he asks.

"They invited us to come if we have any questions. I don't have any questions," she says. She tries again, "So. Your weekend?"

He's more lost than earlier (or just lost, _period_, because he's still not sure about this alliance thing with her), but having been acquainted with how she generally operates, he just answers her. "Exhausting. Did _tons_ of stuff for my grandparents. Yours?"

She shrugs after taking a hearty sip of her water. "Oh, same old things. We all hung out by the beach. Adam taught us how to build sandcastles. They even had a competition yesterday on who can build the best one without using bionics. Bob and Donald III won, so next weekend Mr. Davenport is going to take them to get ice cream on the mainland." Her brows wrinkle when she remembers what he said. "Grandparents?"

He nods. "My mom's parents," he supplies.

"Is that what grandparents do? Make you do things for them?"

"Yeah, most of the time, but you do it because they ask you and you want to help," he says. "It's been a while since I helped them out with anything, so that's what I did when I came over. Grandparents spoil you, too. In fact…" He swivels his feet from under the table and then pulls up the hem of his pants to reveal his new shoes. "They bought me this."

She marvels at the black, white and blue pair with a wide smile. "Wow. Nice kicks."

He grins as he spins his feet back towards the table. "Thanks."

She frowns a little as she works to unwrap her sandwich. "I wish I had grandparents to go to the weekend to and would buy me shoes," she says contemplatively. She tips her toes from underneath her. "I really like the ones that Mr. Davenport gave us, but it'd be nice to have one with colors like yours."

He feels bad for unintentionally making her feel incomplete. To defend himself from the guilt, he quickly thinks of something to make up for what he did. Immediately, he remembers the two pairs of unused (and fairly expensive) gym shoes that his aunt Janice had sitting in her old room. Maybe he can try to convince her to give that to him, give her a call when he comes back to the quarters later.

"Did you finish listening to all the songs?" she asks.

He nods. "Yeah."

"The playlist was good, right?"

He nods with a grin. "Oh, yeah."

"I'm glad to hear. Now you owe me a playlist," she says.

"Okay. I have to warn you, though. I have a killer music library at home, so whatever I build is going to be mind-blowing," he says with a smug grin.

"Oh, really," she challenges.

"Really."

"Okay. I'm going to keep that in mind," she says. "Bree's asked the girls to help out on the Big Something that they're going to announce this Friday. If music is involved in it in some kind of way, I'm going to volunteer and have you help me with it."

He decides to pick up his own food then take a small bite out of it.

"Any idea what it is?"

"No," he says then chews. After finishing, he says, "They never tell me anything. I mean, I guess I can draw it out of them, but if it's a big surprise, I won't be allowed to tell anyways."

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't. Believe it or not, most of us here like surprises. It keeps things interesting."

He dusts himself off the crumbs that had fallen off on his shirt when an uncomfortable feeling beckons him to look around the cafeteria. When he does, he sees a number of girls looking at him and Amaranth. He spots two girls sitting at the outskirts of Chase's table whispering to one another, stealing a glance at him, and then giggling among themselves.

He frowns back on his lunch and wonders what it is this time.

"You ready for the first quarter assessment? It's in about three weeks," Amaranth asks him.

"Oh. Yeah, that?" he asks, shaking off the thought of those girls. "No. No. I feel like it's gym all over again."

"What do you mean?"

He breaks off another piece of grilled cheese unenthusiastically. "I'm gonna get graded for the things I can't do," he says. "Anyways, what about you?"

She shrugs – an apt and concise response.

"You know, I don't think I've seen you use your bionics."

She smirks. "Be glad."

"Oh, come on. They can't be that bad," he goads.

"Enhanced senses, invisibility, geo-leaping. Main one is sound manipulation," she lists half-heartedly.

"Oh, cool! Like Bree's?"

"No, not like Bree's. Bree can imitate sounds. I can, too, but – the ones I make are high-frequency."

"Like, how high?" he asks.

She takes a bite out of her sandwich. "Made Mr. Davenport and Chase faint at the first assessment," she answers.

His jaw drops. "What."

"It's true."

"So, is that why – "

"I wasn't talking much during the first weeks of school? Yes."

"Honestly?"

She nods.

He scoffs in disbelief, shaking his head. "Wow."

"I have a much better handle on it now, though," she adds. "Mr. Davenport has been teaching me how to control it, especially because he said it could hurt somebody if I'm not careful. He's using music to get me to understand scales and things like that."

"Scales?"

"Different ones have different effects. Last week, I discovered that I can cause panic attacks with a high G."

His eyes widen. "Um…"

She rolls her eyes. "Oh, come on. Like you can't hurt everyone here with your energy transference."

He thinks about it and gets intrigued by the idea. "Huh. That never occurred to me," he says.

"If only you stopped focusing on what you don't have and started concentrating on what you do have, you could have been at Advanced level by now," she points out.

"Oh, please. Like that would have happened."

"No, look, you're at Intermediate already. If you concentrate and work harder, you're not too far off from getting bumped up a level."

He eyes her thoughtfully. "You think so?"

Her brows rise.

"Hmm..."

"It could happen sooner if you have someone to train with."

He contemplates on it. "That – that's not a bad idea," he says.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. In fact, I think I know just the person." He looks at her excitedly as a plan formulates in his mind.

She smiles back.

He pulls out his phone from his pocket and dials Douglas' number. "Thanks for the suggestion, Amaranth. You're the best." He gives her a pat on the hand and then walks off, unknowingly leaving her to stare in confusion as he vanishes to the empty Training Center because he completely missed the hint.

* * *

He spends the rest of the week in a different state of mind. While the other students occupy themselves with theorizing what the Big Something will be (a hype that increases in intensity the more his siblings talk about it to their mentees), he busies himself with trainings.

He doesn't start off very determined, but Amaranth keeps reminding him and motivating him into working hard for those orange patches. She asks about it every time they are together, which is quite frequent now. She even strikes a deal with him: instead of wasting their time at the cafeteria getting stared at by the others, they can just train together and help each other to level up.

It sounds a little too much to him at first, but after someone slings a smack talk towards him at an afternoon class, he tells her he's game.

And so that's how his days go: classes and trainings in the morning, lunch and training at noon, and then snack, homework and more training at night. His schedule, filled with the Bionic Academy, Amaranth and Douglas, tires him into a very heavy sleep, but he's hopeful.

He thinks it's a stretch, cramping three months-worth of work in fourteen and some days, but he's hopeful.

* * *

"It's on fire."

Leo swiftly dodges when Amaranth swings towards him, the blazing marshmallow at the end of the stick in her hands nearly hitting him on the face.

She angles her head in curiosity. "How long do I have to wait for it to cook?" she asks.

"Uh, that is beyond cooked," he says. He holds out the s'more he has just finished making towards her and switches it for what she's holding onto. "Here. I'll take that," he says, and then puts the puffy, sugary comet out of its misery by extinguishing its flames.

Meanwhile, she wordlessly watches the whole process in mild interest.

As scheduled, everyone involved in the Academy—with the exclusion of his stepfather—are spending their Friday night out by the beach, relaxing in front of a campfire. Chase is currently holding a mini-music session nearby, surrounded by a number of girls who are secretly pining away through every song he plays and some guys who are just interested in learning how to play a guitar. Bree, on the other hand, is introducing Caitlin to a few of her students. Adam, meanwhile, is exchanging funny stories with a very small group. There are a few who are playing human tic-tac-toe near the waters. If their laughter is any indication, it sounds like they're having fun.

He, on the other hand, has decided to introduce Amaranth to a campfire classic: s'mores. It started off as something that's just between the two of them, the reason being that he's only snuck in enough graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate bars for very few sandwiches, but Spin, Bob, and two others—twins Miller and Miles—seemed to have picked up on the sweet scent and thus forced themselves into being in on the stash that he carefully kept out of sight.

As a result, he's ended up with a class of five students, all of whom are eagerly awaiting to taste their finished product.

"Okay. So now, you use the graham…cracker…chocolate sandwich thing to pull the marshmallow off. Then, you eat," he instructs.

He watches each of them take their first bite.

Miller and Amaranth look intrigued.

Miles looks disturbed. (He doesn't blame her; Miller stole her perfectly good marshmallow and exchanged it with his charred one.)

Spin and Bob look…worrisome. He can tell from the way their eyes lit up and how they keep gobbling their sandwiches that he has sent them on a fast track to a potent sugar rush.

"Verdict?" he asks anyways.

"Best. Ever," Bob says.

"Yeah. How come we don't have any of these for lunch?" Spin says.

"Because if we do, it'll probably have half of the student body crawling up the walls," he says.

Miller laughs. "Crawling? We'll be _running_ up with these," he corrects.

"Mm, yeah. It's a bit too sweet. I think I need some water," Miles says. She stands up. "Miller, you want to come with?"

"Ooh. Yeah." Miller scarfs down the remaining half of his s'more then stands up.

While her twin brother is dusting the sand off his shorts, she tells her youngest brothers, "Okay, you two. Up. I think you guys need water, too."

"No, thanks. We're good," Spin says, eyes concentrated on his sandwich as he figures out his next approach.

"No, you're not good. You and Bob will be keeping everybody up if you don't get these washed out of your systems." When they refuse to stand up, Miles grabs Spin by the arm and pulls him up, Miller doing the same with Bob. "Come on, dweebs. Water. Now."

The twins turn to drag the boys away, both of whom have started protesting. Before they leave, though, Miles shoots a conspiratorial smile at her younger sister.

Miller rolls his eyes.

Amaranth tries not to laugh.

Leo just flat out remains clueless of the quiet but charged conversation because he's too busy cleaning up the small mess his group created. By the time he finishes, the four are gone, and Amaranth seems to be contemplating on another roasted marshmallow. "You never said if you liked it or not," he prompts as he sits back down with her.

"It's pretty good. Not something I would eat every day, but maybe when I'm upset," she says.

He nods.

"How's the training going so far?" she asks.

He grins and quietly answers, "Great. I feel like I have enough tricks up my sleeves to actually get to Advanced level. Douglas and I discovered earlier that I can combine two abilities and make a powerful impact."

"You can do that?"

"Apparently I can," he says; he still can't believe it himself. He scoots next to her in excitement, and for a second it almost seems like she blushed. But knowing that it's probably just the glow of the campfire shining on her face, and knowing that she doesn't have any reason to, he says, "Oh, it was so awesome! I wish I can show you how it works, but Douglas told me I can't do it here because it can damage the whole island. I have to wait until tomorrow to practice it again."

"Wait, tomorrow? So that means you're not going to be here this weekend?"

"No, sorry. It's kind of crunch time now, Ames. Plus, my aunt Janice is going to stay with us for about two weeks, so I'll probably spend my after school hours at the mainland." He frowns. "Why? Do you need help with training? 'Cause you know, I can ask Douglas for you. He'll be happy to get to train two kids instead of one."

She pouts thoughtfully – and cutely, if he's to be completely honest. "Tempting, but that's not really what bothers me." She wrinkles her brows at him. "And 'Ames'? What's that?"

"Amaranth. Amy, Ames. Just a nickname," he says. He grins. "No good?"

She mulls over it. "Not bad."

However, he senses that she's not as happy about it as she says, so he offers, "Maybe we should stay with Amaranth."

"Sure," she says nonchalantly as she reaches for a marshmallow. He knows, though, that she favors the decision.

They lapse into silence for a while. He's in the middle of watching his siblings and Caitlin whisper among themselves at the other side of the campfire when Amaranth talks again. "What do guys like in girls?"

His attention snaps back to her. "What do you mean?"

She hitches a shoulder and continues to draw lines on the sand with a shell fragment she found earlier. She responds, "Like, what would a guy find likeable in a girl?"

"Why?"

"I just want to know."

He's staring at her, watching her reactions closely in bewilderment because he doesn't understand why she asked all of a sudden. He only gets his answer when she looks up and around briefly, and he traces the direction of her first glance near the general spot where Adam is. He smirks; he _knew_ it. He plays it off, though, that he didn't notice. "It depends on the guy. Is he a jerk, or is he nice?"

A small smile appears on her face. "He can be both sometimes," she says.

_Mm._ "Generally, though, what would you say he is?"

She looks at him, her eyes bright. "He's a good guy."

"Okay. Well, _good guys_, like, oh, I don't know – Adam? Guys like that are attracted to nice girls," he says. He knows he might be pushing the envelope by being so outright about her crush, but he has spent enough time with her to know that she won't admit to anything.

He secretly hopes that she will soon, though, because he's only going to be too happy to help. She's a nice girl, with many great qualities, and he seriously thinks his brother will like her.

She appears to hesitate for a moment. Then, "Well, what about you, personally? I mean, what would, you know, _you_ like in a girl?"

He thinks about it. "I like a girl who's nice, too," he says. "A girl who cares about other people, like _really care _about them, is attractive in my opinion, because you don't find many girls like that anymore. That's just beautiful, you know? And if she's also smart – and by that, I don't mean a genius. Just, she can make good choices? And if she's funny, too?" He sighs happily. "Man. I'll definitely fall in love with her."

She stares at him blankly for a while, processing the information he just relayed.

He stares at her, too, but with an embarrassed grin, because he probably overloaded her with knowledge that she may not have wanted.

"What about looks?" she asks later.

He nods and says, "She has to look like Zoe Saldana. Like, _exactly_ like her."

She looks confused. She also looks something else, but what it is doesn't come across clearly.

He laughs. "I'm joking, I'm joking!" he declares. He lightly nudges her. "Come on, Amaranth. Don't be so serious. We're supposed to be relaxing, remember?"

She blinks – and still doesn't get that it should be funny.

"I'm really kidding. She doesn't have to look like her." Then, he adds thoughtfully, "I have a thing for eyes, though. I guess it's because it's the first thing I see." He sighs quickly and tries not to think of Janelle at that moment. "Anyways, enough about me. What about you? Do you like tall, funny guys with great hair?"

She smiles to herself and says nothing.

Their conversation is terminated by the sound of a whistle. "Ladies, gentlemen, can we please have you gather around? We're to make an important announcement," Chase says. After everybody comes near and is listening, he continues, "As you guys probably remember, we mentioned some days ago about a big event that will be happening at the Academy. Well, tonight, you'll finally find out what it is."

As it turns out, his siblings and his stepfather had all put their heads together and came up with the best social event they can expose the students to: prom. It's not going to be very big, they say, but they're going to make sure that it's exciting enough. The students will still be limited to the island, seeing that other people are still not as accepting of the bionic teens after events of months ago, but there will be some others coming over to help out. Like Caitlin, the visitors will be old friends from Mission Creek High, ones that his brothers and sister trust to be decent influences to the students and who wouldn't stir up trouble.

His siblings explain that since there are not enough people from the outside whom the students can take as their dates (the idea of a 'date' seems to have been the crowd pleaser of the night), the students can go together as groups. Nothing wrong with it, Bree and Chase say.

That is, until Adam cracks a joke about looking back on their first prom night pictures years down the line and seeing that their first dates had been their siblings.

It's game over after that.

After they finish the announcement, Adam, Bree, Chase and Caitlin get almost instantaneously swarmed by different students, all varying in their approaches of asking each of them out. Adam, though he didn't intend to cause the frenzy, seems to like the results. Bree appears to have developed a migraine caused by the discomfort of being approached by that many guys. Chase seems to think that the girls crowding him just had questions they wanted to ask , which, for the sake of argument, they do.

Caitlin is just giggling, extremely and undeniably pleasantly surprised to see that guys are actually lining up for a date with her.

Leo groans, burying his face in his palm as he shakes his head.

Asking out a girl after having just ended a semi-maybe-probably-not relationship with one. And he has to pick one from a group who probably would rather go with a sibling than go with him.

All of this in a course of two weeks.

His family must really dislike him.

* * *

_You owe me a dance playlist, sir.._

Leo chuckles when he reads the message. _On it, ma'am,_ he texts back. He pockets his phone afterwards, locking his phone and cuing the music that was playing to continue. He adjusts his earphones, and then resumes his work of finishing up the centerpieces for prom that his mother and his aunt decided to prematurely start on.

The Davenport household is bustling with various activities that Sunday afternoon. At the kitchen, his stepfather and Adam are checking on the mac and cheese that his mother has cooking to see if it's done. By the counter, his mother, Bree and Chase are conversing about prom plans, though his brother is not as involved in the chat. He's currently busy investigating what's inside his 'goody bag,' which each of them received from their visiting aunt last night and is filled with things she bought for them from Vermont.

Outside, by the grill, are Douglas and his Aunt Janice. They've been laughing and flirting for the past hour. Honestly, with how fast they clicked with each other, he wouldn't be surprised if their relationship develops into something more.

Meanwhile, he's sitting by the dinner table, trying not to make too much mess in the small project he's been given in case his grandparents arrive. They're on their way, and the last thing he wants is to have to clean up the table while everybody waits for him.

_"Leo."_

He looks about and soon finds his mother and his sister looking at him. He unplugs his earphones and says, "Huh?"

"Your opinion?" Bree asks impatiently.

"My opinion?"

His mother exchanges glances with her daughter. She clarifies, "On prom, sweetheart. I just wanted to know what you think of it." She smiles hopefully. "Are you excited?"

He thinks about it as he finishes a centerpiece. "No," he says.

"What? Why?"

He doesn't tell her the full truth. Instead, he just says, "Just not feeling it."

His mother looks at him with concern.

Bree presses, "What do you mean you're not feeling it?"

He shrugs and left it at that.

"Don't you have friends you want to go with?" his mother asks.

Adam scoffs. "Friends? What friends?" he says as he comes around the counter.

Everyone shoots a look at him, the most notable of all being the horrified one that his father is darting at him.

Their mother looks appalled. She swivels towards her husband. "Donald? I thought you told me he has a lot of friends?"

"He does! You know. Adam, Bree and Chase. That's three. That's a lot."

It doesn't make it better. It only seems to burrow his father deeper into trouble.

Before that happens, Bree intervenes. She softly clears her throat before saying, "And, uh, Amaranth."

She catches their mother's attention. "Amaranth?"

Their father frowns. "Is that the girl with the sound manipulation?"

"Oh, she's that cute blonde!" Adam says.

"Yes _and_ yes," Bree answers brightly. She turns to her youngest brother and suggests, "Since you guys hang out all the time at school anyways, why don't you hang out with her at prom?"

He feels uncomfortable when the rest of his family looks at him expectantly. "Ah…because…she has DJ duties?" he says. He sits up. "She volunteered, remember?"

"Oh. She did?"

"Well, maybe we can get someone else to do it," Chase proposes. He and Bree shoot a glance at each other before he says, "Can't we do that, Mr. Davenport? Get someone to do it? So that all the students will have a chance to enjoy prom?"

Their father's brows wrinkle, not quite understanding what his son's cluing him into.

Chase continues looking at him.

It takes a while before their father understands. When he does, his eyes widen in shock, as if asking his son 'Really?'

Chase nods minutely.

They break, and soon their father is grinning suspiciously at his youngest child.

Leo draws back a little, eyeing him with a frown. He doesn't know what's happening, but he's absolute that his family's acting weirdly. "That's not necessary, Big D," he says slowly. "Amaranth's wanted to do this, and knowing her she won't give up the DJ booth for a dance with anybody."

"I won't be too sure about that," Bree singsongs as she walks to the kitchen.

Leo doesn't hear her over the loud beeping from the oven. "What'd you say, Bree?" he asks.

"Baby, why don't you head outside and see if Douglas and Aunt Janice need help?" his mother says. "I'll put away the centerpieces for you."

"Okay." He abandons the table and heads outside obediently. He knows that it's not going to sit well with Douglas, him joining them out there and becoming a third wheel, but he kind of needs the change in surroundings, especially when his family is being suddenly strange.

Unknown to him, his family wanted him to have a change of surroundings, too. They need him to be away for a moment, especially Bree and Chase, so that they can openly talk about the glaringly obvious fact that he had been failing to read for weeks now.

* * *

He works harder for the next few days with training that he nearly forgets about prom night.

His bionics are definitely getting better, and the results that his trainings with Amaranth and Douglas produce make him all the more excited for the assessment next Friday. He can almost see himself walking around school two Mondays from now, sporting those deep orange patches on his shoulders.

Thoughts like that help a lot whenever he's extremely tired, like at this moment. After having fired fifty straight shots at a target, he's collapsed to the floor and is currently sprawled out at the empty Training Center. His arm feels like it's ready to pop off, and his lungs are laboring to catch up from the work out. He doesn't know if he'll manage to stay awake for his afternoon classes, but he's certainly going to try.

"A few of my siblings are going to have a prom practice session later on. Would you like to come?"

He peels his eyes open then turns his head towards Amaranth, who's currently holed away at one of the benches by the wall, her tablet on her lap, headphones around her neck. "A practice session for prom?" he repeats.

"After Crimson and a few others got their dates from the guests, they thought it's a good idea to practice so they won't embarrass themselves when they attempt to dance," she tells him.

"Oh."

"So, are you coming?"

"Well, I'm already awesome when it comes to dancing, so I don't see the need of practicing. But – " he sits up, "if you're going, I'll go."

"Okay. I'm only going to be there to do music anyways. Maybe we can work on compiling the songs while they're doing whatever they're planning on doing," she says absentmindedly as she scrolls through the list on her tablet.

He frowns. "Wait, wait. You're not going to join them?"

She shakes her head.

"Why not?"

She makes a disinterested face.

"What about prom? You're going to dance, right?"

"Dancing's not really my thing."

He reels back, surprised. "What? Okay, something must have been wrong with my ears, because I'm sure I didn't just hear you say that dancing is not your thing."

"Nope. You heard me perfectly clear."

He gapes at her. He then stands up. "Okay, Amaranth. Come on. Let's go."

"Let's go where?" she asks.

He waves her over, "Here. We're going to dance."

"Dance? Right now?"

He laughs, "Yeah, right now."

"Why?"

"Because I don't believe that you don't like dancing," he says. When he sees that she's not going to move, he rolls his eyes, rushes over to her, grabs her hand, and then leads her to the middle of the Training Center. Facing her, he says, "Okay, first things first: what do you think of slow dances?"

"It's slow," she deadpans.

His head bows low as he whines. "Amaranth… You're killing me here!"

She laughs at his reaction. "How else did you want me to describe it? It _is_ slow!" she says. "The dance is just a variation of a one-two step or a one-two-three step."

"Why didn't you just go with that?"

She grins cheekily. "Because it wouldn't have annoyed you as much," she says.

He darts an unimpressed look at her. "You know, I'm trying to help you be ahead of your siblings here."

She chuckles. "Okay, okay. Go ahead," she prompts.

He sulks for another minute before continuing. "You start off. Show me how it goes," he says.

She looks at him unsurely for a while. Then, she begins swaying from foot to foot, from side to side, a particular song playing in her mind.

He smiles. "Alright. You got it," he says and then begins swaying along with her. He pulls out his phone and chooses a song with a faster pace to play. When it begins, he begins rocking to the tune and says, "Okay, how about this?"

She slows down to a stop as she watches him.

"Come on, Amaranth. I know you can keep up," he teases as he keeps on.

She crosses her arms and smirks. "So this is the awesome dancing you're bragging about?" she teases back. "Your moves are _average_."

He stops then gapes. She did _not_ just say that. "Oh, average, is it?" he says. He maxes out the volume of the song before he begins dancing to the beat, holding nothing back.

Amaranth shakes her head with a huge grin as he moves about.

When the song hits the chorus again, he stops. He walks back towards her, breathless again, and says, "So. You still think that's average?"

The disbelieving yet bright expression remains on her face as she regards him. She's about to answer him when she notices something behind him. She looks at it and then back at him.

He turns around to see what it is that caught her attention.

The humiliation he felt after seeing several girls and a number of guys watching him keep him awake the rest of the afternoon. He's left constantly thinking of creative ways to hide from them in shame, especially whenever they dart him those looks, but because of the classes he can't. It's only a huge relief after school to be able to sneak back to the quarters and be away before the jokes begin.

But, it doesn't come.

In fact, he seems to have misunderstood the glances he's been receiving from the girls. By the time he's finished getting ready for the practice session (he doesn't want to go anymore, but he's already given Amaranth his word), three text messages from three different girls are sitting on his phone, all questions whether he already has someone to take to prom or not.

* * *

It takes three more days for him to realize that he enjoys spending time with her.

With permission from his stepfather, Amaranth was able to leave the Academy that weekend to stay with the rest of his family. It was expedient that way; at least she didn't have to go back and forth, even if it's easy because of one of her abilities. They had scheduled a weekend-long training session with Douglas to really lock down their chances of getting placed into a higher level. He had also planned to take her to an amusement park Sunday night as a thank you for all the help she's given him.

Honestly, it's been a long time since he had that much fun. It reminded him of the first time he went to the Boardwalk with his siblings. Amaranth took in everything with a wide-eyed wonder, and everything was so exciting to her. She was a perfect mess of happiness, and he couldn't help but melt into it. Watching her try to contain her squeals whenever she won a prize and listening to her babble as she drags him to hundreds of different directions all at once made him laugh.

The highlight of it all, though, was when they decided to try out the amusement parks' photo booth and she had to wrestle with the gigantic stuffed panda he won for her just so the three of them could be in the pictures. The frustration and determination on her face was priceless, and the photographs they received as souvenirs afterwards made it all worthwhile.

As he lies down on his bed tonight, staring at the stark white ceiling in his room at the quarters, he feels a measure of guilt weigh down on him. He feels somewhat bad, thinking about her this way. They're supposed to be friends, and friends can't maybe-probably like their friends. It's just not right. They're not allowed to think about how pretty they looked while they were watching the fireworks Sunday night or how they're really good at making them laugh. Friends like him are not allowed to do that, right? He needs to learn his place.

Plus, she likes Adam. He knows that that's been the case since the beginning. He's only there to help her out in exchange of her helping him out. Fair deal.

He thinks that maybe this is normal. He probably doesn't even like her the way he thinks he does. More than likely, he just appreciates the nice things about her. Nothing wrong with thinking that a girl is pretty, right? It's just a general observation. And there's definitely nothing wrong with being drawn to a person who makes you happy. That's why they're friends, after all.

Yeah, he decides. That's it. He likes spending time with her because they're really good friends – and there is nothing wrong with that.

* * *

His stomach contorts into painful knots Friday afternoon.

As he waits with the rest of the students for their turn at the assessment, he can't help but be nervous. What if, despite all of those weeks of hard work, he retains his place at Intermediate level? What if his bionics glitch? What if he does too much and succeed in sinking the Academy this time? What is he going to do?

Even if there are no outward show of his anxiety, Amaranth picks up on it through his silence. "My sisters really enjoy Peter the Panda's company," she states, not taking her eyes away from the sound mix she's editing on her tablet.

"Huh? Oh. Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. The ladies love him."

He smiles. "That's good. Hopefully the popularity won't go to his head."

"It won't. His head is already full of something else."

He chuckles. "Good one," he says. Later, he says casually, "You've talked to Big D about the DJ booth?"

She lifts her eyes up at him. "Yeah, but I've only managed to convince him to let me do it for half of the night. He said I have to spend the other half being with everyone else."

"Poor you, having to mingle with the rest of us 'everyone else,'" he jokes. "Who are you going with?"

She stares at him like he's just spoken to her in a different language. "Um, you? I thought that's been our plan from the beginning?"

Now he's the one staring at her like she's just replied to him in a different language. He stammers, "I'm – I'm sorry?"

"Le-o!" Adam calls him from the entrance of the Training Center. He grins mischievously. "Your turn."

He glances at his brother then looks back at her, still wanting to know when this supposed planning of them going together took place.

Instead of answering him, she just smiles. "Show time," she says.

He blinks then goes albeit hesitatingly, because he knows his stepfather and Chase are waiting for him.

He enters the Training Center more confused than ever, though.

He's also tremendously nervous – and it's not because of the assessment this time.

* * *

He searches for her after they finish but doesn't find her. He looks around, asks others, but she's nowhere to be seen. After an hour of no results, he decides to just leave it alone. They're going together, end of story.

Before he leaves for the quarters, he sneaks into the girls' dormitories with Miles' help. He deposits a box into the compartment where Amaranth stores her belongings then quickly departs.

The note attached to it reads, _Shoes, with lots of colors! I think they're your size. Hope you like them. Thanks for the help with the training! _Underneath his name, he adds, _P.S – I'll come by at 6:30 to help you set up the booth. _

* * *

He's a nervous wreck the following night.

He feels silly about it and tries hard to calm himself down, but it doesn't work. He doesn't know why the thought of being with her build up that much nerve in him. _We're friends, okay? We're friends_, he keeps telling himself, but it fails almost every time.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have a friend that's a girl after all.

_But Miles is sort of your friend, too. You don't feel _that_ way about her._

He sighs. He tries not to show the conflict percolating in his head, especially since his family is in the quarters with him. Almost all of them are making their last minute preparations for the dance. Bree, in a stunning red evening gown, and his stepfather are helping Chase fix the stubborn cuff links on his sleeves. His aunt Janice is adjusting Douglas' tie (he's pretty sure they're dating now).

His mother, meanwhile, is also helping him fix his necktie. When she finishes, she smoothes out the lapel on his tuxedo and smiles. "You look so handsome, baby," she says.

He smiles back. "You look great, too, Mom," he says.

"Thanks," she says. She turns around and then picks up two long-stemmed white roses from the couch. "Now, I know you're flying solo tonight, but maybe you can give this to one of the girls."

He takes it from his mother and thinks about how beautiful the flowers are. "Thanks, Mom," he says. He then kisses her on the cheek. "See you later."

"Wait. Where are you going?" she calls after him as he rushes to the hydroloop.

"I just need to make a stop somewhere," he yells before the doors close.

It doesn't take long for the transportation system to spit him out at the dormitories. The hall is filled with clusters of girls, some taking pictures, some introducing their dates to their sisters. There are a few here and there who are having small conversations and who are assisting each other with their hairs and outfits, but he doesn't find her among them. He continues on until he reaches the empty area where the entrance to her capsule dorm is. He knocks, just to make sure he's not walking in on something he shouldn't be walking into. When no one responds, he cautiously enters.

"Amaranth?" he calls out quietly as the door hisses close behind him. "Amaranth, I'm here."

"Just a sec."

He waits for a bit and looks around. He counts how many capsules are in that room and finds ten. Ten girls in one room. He wonders how that works. At the quarters, with just him, Adam, Bree and Chase, mornings almost always end in a catastrophe. He can't even imagine adding six more people in the mix.

The stuffed panda sitting at the corner catches his eyes. It's slumped on a makeshift chair and is now sporting a fedora hat. It looks a little worn out, but it looks very much loved, more than how it looked when it was hanging at that game booth, clothespins holding him in place.

"Hi."

He swivels around – and his breath gets taken out of him.

She's standing by the entryway leading to what he supposes are the restrooms. Though she's smiling, she looks a little uncomfortable. He doesn't know why. With her peach lace ball gown, braided hair cascading in curls to one side, and smoky blue eyes – "You look… Wow."

She laughs bashfully. "Thanks," she says. "You know what's the best part of this outfit?"

He shakes his head.

She lifts the skirt of her gown a little to reveal her shoes.

"Oh! It fits you!"

"Yeah," she says, wiggling her toes inside the multi-colored sneakers. She looks up at him with an appreciative smile. "Thanks for these, Leo. I love them."

He nods. "Well, I'm glad you do. I owe you a lot," he says. Soon, the flowers in his hand demand his attention. "Oh! I almost forgot." He comes over to her and hands out the roses. "These are for you."

She takes it from him with a soft smile.

He scratches his head. "I don't know what you can do with those, though," he says, seeing now that they probably will be a nuisance for her to have to carry around all night.

She holds up her index finger. "One moment," she says, and then walks back to the entryway for the bathroom.

When she emerges later on, the roses are now skillfully tucked within her braids.

"Nice," he congratulates her with a nod. As she rejoins him, he holds out his arm. He grins then says, "Will the beautiful lady in peach care to join me?"

She laughs, locking her arm with his.

Oddly enough, seeing the way her face glows as her sisters and the guests compliment her throughout the night calms him down. Seeing her happy makes him happy, because he knows that a girl as kind and funny as her deserves moments like this. She deserves to be told that she's stunning.

She also deserves to have the best night of her life, which seemed to have come early in the form of the fully equipped DJ booth waiting for her at the area where the prom's taking place. Her childlike excitement as she rushes to it makes it tremendously difficult for him not to like her even more. She was that perfect mess of happiness again, lit like a flame at that moment by the lights above them, and he couldn't be help but be drawn to it.

Admittedly, seeing her expression brighten even more as Adam helps her out at the booth hours later is a struggle. Adam's date suddenly had to leave for some reason, so he's left pretty much bored and alone. He drifts here and there around the venue for some time until he finally finds his place with Amaranth. They've been chatting animatedly for the past half hour now, and they appear to be having a good time. He knows he should be happy for her, for his brother, because this is good.

However, he doesn't, and what makes it worse is the fact that he can't look away.

He firmly tells himself to stop it. He's acting like a petulant, possessive child. He should leave them alone and mind his own business. So that's what he does. He pries himself away and instead talks to some of their visitors, most of whom he used to have classes with back in Mission Creek High.

He doesn't really stop thinking about his brother and his friend until an old nosy classmate asks him if he and Janelle really did break up already. That seems to have done the trick because it catches him off-guard. It's been a while since he actually thought of her, much more so speak about her. He tells her that they did nonetheless, and his old classmate just replies, "Oh, okay. I thought so. I saw her and Finn Snyder holding hands yesterday. I figured you guys weren't together anymore."

Sometimes social events really have a way of making his life depressing.

He does his best to shrug it off, though. It's not his place anymore to be concerned with things like that. They've gone separate ways. She has her own life, and he has his. At this moment, at this time, his life is about this prom, and his concern should be these students and how to make this the best night ever.

He spots Miles over at the refreshment table, glaring at the punch bowl as if it had done her wrong. He grins then walks over to her. "I think you already won," he tells her.

She looks up at him, surprised. When she understands what he means, she says, "Oh, uh… I was just trying to decide if I want some more. It's really good, but I don't think it's a good idea to keep drinking when, you know."

He nods in understanding. "The bathrooms are too far away?"

She nods. "Yeah," she says. "I have to keep an eye on these punks."

His brows wrinkle. "You know, the kids from Mission Creek are not bad. I've known some of them—"

"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about my siblings."

"Oh…" He laughs. "Is that why you're not dancing?"

She sighs. "No," she said. "My group's abandoned me. Miller's over there flirting up a storm with Caitlin's cousin, and Spin's too busy being adored by some of the visiting girls. I've danced with Bob, but after he saw Bree he's decided to follow her around. The girls are, well, having a mini-gossip session that I really don't want to be a part of, so."

"Hm, okay." He smiles. "Want to dance with me?"

She pores over it. She takes a quick glance at the DJ booth, and then says, "Yeah. Sure."

They walk over to the dance floor then dance to the sound of the beat. It's somewhat awkward at first, because he finds that Miles is not the kind of girl that initiates conversations, but after he begins asking her a few questions about her siblings, she begins talking more.

In the few minutes they're together, he learns much about her, and he thinks she learns some about him, too.

Some songs down the line, Miles states, "I overheard what that girl in green told you earlier. I'm sorry."

Instead of getting upset, he just shrugs. If she has bionic hearing, she probably didn't mean to listen in anyways. "Eh, it happens," he says loud enough for her to hear over the music.

"You know, maybe it's not such a bad thing."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said maybe it's not such a bad thing."

He frowns. "What do you mean?"

She smiles knowingly. "I mean, maybe there's a girl for you out there," she says.

He chuckles. "You're starting to sound like Bree, Miles," he says.

"Well, we're both older sisters. We just know things," she nods.

He smiles. "Maybe," he says later. "A girl for me, I mean. Maybe I'll meet her one day while I'm out on a mission or something."

"Or maybe you'll meet her here at the Academy."

He scoffs. "Please. I mean, your sisters are great and all, but none of them like me."

"That's not true. You kind of racked some serious points with Peter the Panda and your dance moves," she says.

His dancing slows down to a near stop. "So, you're saying that someone could potentially like me?" he asks hopefully.

She laughs, and it's the kind that lets him know that he's again missing something. "_Could,_ only if someone hadn't called dibs on you already," she says.

He frowns as he thinks about it. Someone likes him? When did this happen? "I don't know if I should feel overjoyed or feel cheap," he muses.

She pats him on the shoulder. "I'd feel overjoyed," she says. "She's a great girl."

He looks at her with widened eyes. "So you know who it is?"

"Hey!"

He turns around and finds Amaranth smiling at them. "Hey," he greets back.

Miles smirks at them. "Thanks for the dance, Leo. It was fun. See you later."

"Oh, uh, Miles, I still – "

But she's already halfway out of the dance floor.

He's a little disappointed because he really wants to know. But Amaranth is standing behind him, waiting, so he opts to delay the questioning until a later time. He swivels towards her. "Got kicked out of the booth?" he asks.

"Kind of. I managed to convince the DJ to let me finish out, but Mr. Davenport said I can't. He said the night's almost over, and I haven't gone out here yet," she says.

He nods. "Drink?"

"Yeah."

As they make their way to the refreshment table, he realizes that it's a bit awkward between them. He doesn't know what he can talk to her about. The assessment is a topic that they've explored to death, so that's a no. Revisiting things he talked to Miles about earlier is just not a good idea because they deal with feelings, and feelings is not something he wants to discuss with her. That's a can of worms he doesn't want to open up.

So he just says, "Nice song choices," then feels like a dummy because he really could have said something more intelligent than that.

Her brows wrinkle lightly. "Thanks? You know you chose half of the songs," she says.

"Oh. Right. I knew that."

She smiles kindly. "Is there something wrong?" she asks.

"Uh, no, no. It's just – I guess I'm a little tired from the dancing and talking and walking around talking to people."

"Oh. Being a social butterfly, are we?"

"I just needed to do something to distract me" comes out of his mouth before he can filter it. _What am I doing?_

Her smile decreases. "Sorry I left you," she says.

Now he just feels like a flat out jerk. "No, no! Please! Don't be sorry," he says. He gives her a sincere smile. "I just want you to have a great night. Are you having a great night?"

She grins. "Kind of. The DJ booth was fantastic and all, and I had fun with Adam, but… I guess I did want to be out here and try this dancing thing," she says.

Of all the things she said, though, all he heard is that she enjoyed being with his brother. With a tight smile he says, "Why don't you invite him to dance with you? It'll be cute. You, and him. First dance. Do they have anymore cheese and crackers left?" He turns towards the spread of food behind him, frantically looking, because he's feeling hungry, not jealous.

"'It'll be cute'?" she repeats with a strained grin.

"Yeah."

She looks on in his strange behavior. She doesn't think it should be amusing, but she can't help herself from laughing. "I'm not going to dance with him," she says.

"Why?"

"Because he didn't come here with me."

He neither hears nor sees any trace of sadness in what she said, but he knows she's just trying to be positive with her situation. Although he's…_hungry_ (he's not jealous, he's not), he truly does want her to have fun, so he's going to do what it takes for that to happen. He looks around the room and finds Adam at the opposite side of the dance floor. He takes her hand, ignores the electricity pricking his skin, and says, "We can change that."

She doesn't move when he walks and anchors him back into place.

He lightly frowns at her.

She shakes her head. "I don't want to dance with him."

He looks at her blankly. It then comes to him that she probably feels shy. Talking to Adam would not help, so he stays put. He smiles out of understanding. "Okay."

The DJ then makes an announcement, informing everybody that they have come to the last songs of the night. The students and the guests do not sound too thrilled about that. The DJ apologizes and promises to make it up to them by playing crowd favorites as the last set.

When the next song, sweet and beautiful in its acoustics, comes on, Leo asks, "Dance?"

Amaranth looks up at him then smiles. "Yes," she says.

He takes her hand and leads her to the dance floor, elated that this time, it's not to give her to another guy. He holds up their linked hands then places his other hand on her waist. After she places her other hand on his shoulder, they begin to sway with the music, their feet moving in an incredible accord.

He anticipates nervousness, just as what he felt earlier, but it doesn't come. Oddly, he feels at ease, like this is where he should be.

Slowly, as the hymn goes on, the world around them vanishes. At least to him it does. Under the light, all he can see are her eyes and her smile. It's something outlandishly addicting, the way she makes him feel. It's the same one that overcame him when he was four, when he jumped off the kitchen counter just so he could experience what it's like to fly. Looking at her, and holding her close, is like that quick moment when he was airborne: he's flying and falling at the same time.

He twirls her around and is rewarded with a soft laugh.

When she returns to him, something strikes him inwardly. His mind and his heart have conspired against him, and now the damage is complete.

He has fantastically, spectacularly, and disastrously fallen in love with her.

* * *

_to be continued._


	3. iii

_Thank you very much to ShyMusic, AllAmericanSlurp and daphrose for braving the very lengthy second chapter and leaving reviews for it! Much appreciated, guys!_

_Last chapter. Glad there's been many positive reaction to Amaranth because she will probably officially join the Chronicle canon in a few months. :)_

_A few Marvel-inspired themes from last chapter and this one, three in total. Can you spot one of them? ;)_

_Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorite, and followed. It's tremendously appreciated! _

* * *

iii.

A civil war rages inside him all Sunday long.

His heart and his mind, which had acted against him the previous night, have turned against each other and are strongly pulling him in separate directions.

His heart tells him that he should take his chances and try to win Amaranth over. She makes him laugh, makes him feel great about everything. She makes him want to be better, for himself, for the people that they will be helping in the future, for her. She brings so much light, being by his side, and he's not too sure he wants to give that away.

But his mind always chastises him for these thoughts. She doesn't belong with him, he knows that. She belongs with his brother, and to take her away is criminal. It's also unkind to her. She only signed up for a friendship with him. Telling her these feelings will complicate everything. She's never going to like him back, so what's the use of confessing and making her feel like the bad guy?

He broods heavily upon these things until he goes to bed.

When he wakes up that Monday, he's decided he's going to tell her.

He plans out everything at breakfast – when he's going to talk to her, what he's going to say. He anticipates different responses she might give him and how he's going to reply to them.

His head swims with so many possibilities that he forgets about the results of the assessment coming out today. If they level up, new uniforms with their respective color patches will be sitting in their lockers to wear from that day onward. If they don't, their old uniforms will be waiting for them.

When he opens the storage box in his room, which has been serving as his locker, the high spirit he started his day with plunges to the floor then shatters like a vase.

As he stares at the colored patches, he remembers what all of this is, this friendship between them: it's a deal, nothing more, nothing less. Despite the result in front of him, she's already filled her share. Now it's his turn to fulfill his end of the bargain.

His mind resurges from its previous loss and suddenly, aggressively snatches away the victory.

It's a deal, and he can't cheat her out of it no matter how much he likes her.

* * *

"Oh, no!"

He slowly twirls around as he walks towards her, arms opened wide as he models his uniform with a weak grin. "Yep. Still a green bean," he tells her, trying to make the situation light.

She chuckles at his joke. "Oh, man. Leo, I'm so sorry," she says to him as he sits down to join her for lunch.

He sighs. "Yeah. Me, too. But at least I learned some new things," he says. He gives her a smile. In the process, he notices the green patches on her uniform. His eyes slightly widen in surprise. "Y-you…You got promoted?"

She slouches in discomfort. Touching a patch, as if trying to hide it behind her hand, she says, "Yeah. I'm sorry."

"No! Why are you sorry? This is a good thing!" he tells her excitedly, because he is happy for her. He's also jealous, just a tad bit, but he knows how hard she's trained for this, too. He grins. "You're a green bean now, too, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Did Big D and Chase get back with you yet to discuss your full standings?"

She shifts awkwardly. "Yeah."

He can see and hear that she's holding something back, so he prompts, "And…? What did they say?"

She looks at him apologetically and hesitantly, like she's afraid to disclose the entire truth to him. He decides he doesn't like that look, her being uncomfortable with him like that. "That I'm not too far off from Advanced level," she says quietly.

Despite _that_ definitely stinging, he says sincerely, "That's great, Amaranth. I'm proud of you."

She smiles appreciatively, and he finds that it sweeps away the hurt and jealousy. "Thank you," she says.

He nods.

Soon, they fall into silence, but unlike the ones that occurred before, this one is somewhat strained. It makes him uneasy, the lack of words, because then his rebellious thoughts get the best of him.

While he's sorting things out, she's doing the same, too. She's stuck in the middle of opening her drink when something comes to her. She smiles as that something expands in her mind, to the fullest degree that it overtakes her and causes her to finally speak. "Hey, listen – about last Saturday? I had a great time."

He smiles back. "I'm glad that you did."

She mulls over her next words carefully, biting her lips. Then, "There's something I need to tell you."

"Okay."

"The dance…reminded me of something I've been keeping from you these past few weeks," she starts off reluctantly. She shoots that uncomfortable look at him again. He doesn't like it any better. She takes a deep breath. After a false start, she chuckles. "There's this guy that I like," she says, "and I kind of want to know if he likes me, too."

He smiles, because he understands—and it's the most excruciating thing he's ever had to do. "Say no more. I know who you mean," he says.

Her blue eyes slowly widen. "You do?"

He nods. "I do."

She grins bashfully. "Well, does he like me?" she asks.

He gazes at her one last time, knowing that after this he would be losing her. "You're an amazing girl, Amaranth. You're cool and creative and unbelievably kind. You're beautiful," he tells her. "Why wouldn't he like you?"

She stares at him, taken by his words. He watches as gradually, a different smile rises up to her lips, the kind that's warm and comforting and makes the darkness vanish. She's happiness again, perfect in its kind, but he knows that he has no right to it.

She's not his.

She's Adam's.

* * *

She invited him to hang out with her siblings at the beach after school to look through the pictures from prom night, and he told her he would come, but he can't bring himself to do it.

He's standing at the entrance of the Academy, debating his next move. He's seen her sitting in a semi-circle with Miller, Miles and an older brother named Donovan, laughing with them as they talked about Saturday night. His first instinct is to join them, but he knows he shouldn't. Spending more time with her will just make things more difficult than it already is.

Mind made up, he searches for Adam among the crowd but doesn't find him. He's about to go back inside to look for his brother when he feels a firm slap on his shoulder. "Hey," Adam says. "Why are you in here and not out there?"

He answers, "Oh, uh, just – I was waiting."

"Waiting? In here?"

"Yeah," he says.

"Oh. Okay." Adam frowns as his eyes sweeps along the coast. "Have you seen Bree? Mr. Davenport is looking for her. He says he needs to do a quick test on her chip."

"Yes, but she left about five minutes ago. She already went inside."

"Mm, she's probably with Mr. Davenport now then," Adam guesses.

"Yeah. Probably," he says distractedly. Looking up, he sees that Amaranth has spotted him and is now waving at him cheerfully. He smiles sadly as he waves back. As he watches her siblings depart one by one, he decides to act on his earlier decision. "Adam?"

"Yep."

_Do it quick, like ripping off a Band-Aid._ "What do you think of Amaranth?" he asks.

"Amaranth? Your friend?"

He nods.

He looks at her thoughtfully. "She's pretty," he says, but not with the conviction Leo wants to hear.

"Just pretty?" he asks.

Adam shrugs. "I mean, she's cool, too," he says. He then grins. "Awesome DJ. She taught me Saturday night how to operate the turntable, and she made it so fun! There were so many buttons and switches in there, and she told me what each one does, and she put it in a way that I can unders—"

"Yeah, that sounds great! Um…" he then stalls. _Quickly, like a Band-Aid._ "Do you – do you think you'll like her?"

Adam's features wrinkle. "Like her?"

"Yeah, like, _like her_ like her."

She smiles at Leo when he looks at her.

Adam still doesn't understand.

"She likes you, Adam," he says.

Adam gapes. "She does?"

Something withers inside of him when he sees the curious way his brother now looks at her. He nods. "I just need to know if you will like her back," he says.

A huge grin pulls at Adam's mouth as he responds, "Yeah, of course! Oh, man. And here I thought she likes somebody else!"

He smiles at his brother, because even if he feels terrible, he is happy that she's going to be with a good guy like him. He pats him on the back then nods at her direction. "She's right there. Why don't you go talk to her?"

He observes wordlessly as his brother makes his way towards Amaranth. Amaranth, who's still smiling but is clearly confused, watches Adam as he approaches then sits beside her. Leo looks on as Adam greets her then she greets him back. Adam says something to her (he guesses he told her what he just found out), but instead of her expression brightening, it dims down into nothing. She then forces a small smile on her face. Leo reads an apology coming out from her lips before she darts a hurt glance at his direction. She shakes her head then proceeds to explain something to Adam.

"Ah," Adam appears to say while he nods. Then, he laughs lightly.

She bites her lip, and he can tell from far away that she's trying not to cry.

She's hurt, and it has Leo seeing red.

Instinctively, he marches towards them as she gets up to leave but doesn't catch up to her. He turns sharply towards Adam and asks heatedly, "What did you tell her?"

"I told her what you told me!" Adam replies, hands up and eyes wide as his little brother's reaction catches him by surprise.

"And you _laughed_ at her?"

Adam chuckles nervously. "I laughed because I was right!" he says. "She likes somebody else!"

He eyes his brother in disappointment. He can't believe he laughed at her. However, what he can't believe more is that as her friend he misinterpreted everything, and because of that he has embarrassed her.

After darting a glare at his brother, he runs after Amaranth as she makes her way to the other side of the island. The students are looking at them as they pass by, but he doesn't care. He's too determined to talk to her. "Amaranth! Amaranth, wait!" he calls after her.

She stops.

"Amaranth, look – I'm sorry," he tells her as she faces him. "I didn't know. I honestly misunderstood. I thought you liked Adam." She only stares at him, and it's obvious that she's mad at him. He doesn't know if he can take it. So, he says, "Don't worry, I'll make it up to you. I'll talk to Chase tonight, in private, and I'll tell him—"

She scoffs, and it's apparent from her bitter grin that not only is she angry, but she's also extremely, incredibly, unbelievably insulted. Her eyes well with tears as she says, "You know, all you had to say was no. That would have been much better."

He frowns. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Don't worry. I get it now."

That confuses him more. "Get what now?" he asks. "Amaranth, I don't—"

"I was right," she says, her voice breaking. "You can be such a jerk."

Now he just has no idea what's happening.

He starts to reach out for her to offer consolation though he's as puzzled as can be, but before he can touch her hand she vanishes in a mist, leaving him with an empty space to grasp and disappointment to own.

* * *

Apparently, the students banding together against him is much worse than them making fun of him.

He learns it the very next day, when he's looking for Amaranth to talk to her. The other bionics have become very open with their dislike of him. They won't say anything demeaning, but it's obvious from the way the girls shoot him dirty looks and from the way the boys glare at him that he has done something that verily offended all of them. It doesn't bother him much at first, but when Miles rolls her eyes in annoyance then walks away from him when he tries to ask her where her sister is, he knows the situation is not good.

Even Spin's increased unruliness when dealing with him, which previously is not really much of a problem, raises red flags.

All of this wouldn't have mattered, though, if he just knew where Amaranth is. None of them would talk to him. He's banned from even thinking about setting foot at the dormitories, so he can't look for her there. He's only got a glimpse of her in Chase's class, and whenever he attempts to approach her, her brothers would quickly form a barricade to prevent him from coming closer to their sister. He texts her, leaves messages in her voicemail, does virtually everything to let her know that he's sorry, whatever it is he has done, he's really, really sorry, but he's been permanently shut out.

He doesn't know what to do. He's becoming desperate. He's willing to do anything just to talk to her and really figure out what it is that he seems to not understand.

The chance opens up during a class transition. He finds Bob, alone by the hydroloop, waiting for someone. After checking to see if any of Bob's siblings are there, he quickly grabs him by the arm from behind and pulls him towards the empty hallway. Bob looks at him like a deer caught in the headlights when he sees him. "Look, Bob, I'm really sorry to do this, but I need to know where Amaranth is," he says.

"Uh…" Bob peers behind him worriedly. "Sorry, Leo, but I'm not allowed to talk to you."

"Not allowed?"

"Yeah. Everybody's kind of…"

"…mad at me, I know," he says. "But, we're friends, aren't we? And you're not really mad at me, right?"

The worry on Bob's features evaporates, revealing that his assumption is wrong. "Actually, I _am_ mad at you." When Leo's brows wrinkle, he clarifies, "Leo, you made my sister cry."

The first surprise of their conversation has him reeling back. He _had _done something terrible. "She cried?"

"Yeah. It was horrible. We all stayed up Monday night just to make sure she's okay. You should have seen how sad she was," Bob says. "She actually still is."

He sighs. She's right; he _is_ a jerk. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I promise, it was never my intention to make her sad. I just wanted to help her. She's done so much for me, and I – I didn't know she likes Chase."

A frown slowly washes over Bob's features. He narrows his eyes. "Wait. So you _really_ don't know?"

"Don't know what?"

Bob stares at him a while. Then, he throws his head back as he laughs. "Dude," he says, drawing out the word. "Are you serious?"

"Serious about what?" he asks, now getting slightly frustrated.

Bob grins at him then reveals the second surprise of their conversation. "Leo, Amaranth doesn't like Adam or Chase. She likes you."

That one has him stumped. He blinks after his mind completely blanked out. "Come again?"

"Amaranth's liked you since the first time we met your family," Bob explains. "She just didn't say anything because you were dating that other girl. When she found out that you weren't anymore, she waited then – here we are. When you talked to her at lunch Monday, she thought you understood, but when Adam came to her and said what you said, and then when you said what you said, she thought that that's your way of telling her you're not interested in her. That really hurt her, because with the bear and the shoes and the dance, she thought you liked her, too."

Leo stares at him in disbelief. Is it true? That she likes him? Is that what he's been missing all along? With renewed determination, he tells Bob, "I have to find your sister."

"Bob."

They look up and see Charlie and Donovan close by, arms crossed, clearly unhappy. "Come on. We're going to be late for class," Charlie says before darting a poisonous glare at the other boy.

Bob regards Leo apologetically. "Can't help you, bro. This is kind of something you have to put back together on your own," he says. Then, he jogs away towards his brothers, leaving Leo by himself.

Bob's words replays in his head as if on a loop. _She likes you. She thought you liked her, too._ It sounds so good, too good, so maybe it's not true. Maybe Bob didn't understand. Maybe she cried because she felt humiliated, because he gave her help that she probably didn't want. Maybe that's it.

But then, what he said makes sense. The way her face lit up when he told her he knew who she was talking about, the way she smiled sadly when Adam talked to her, the way she cried at the beach, all happiness gone from her face—it adds up. Oh, goodness, it does. It all adds up. And he's so stupid not to realize it.

He has to find her, before it's too late. He doesn't care how many students he has to battle just to get to her. True or not, he's going to tell her that he likes her, even if it hurts him.

* * *

A mission alert comes in Thursday afternoon. Authorities in a European country received a note that an explosive had been placed at a park and will go off in an hour. They had narrowed it down to two locations, but because of the distance apart and the scope of the places, they called in help from the bionics so that they can find the harmful device in time to disable it.

Because of the situation, Adam, Bree and Chase decide to bring in qualified students to assist.

Amaranth is chosen to be one of them.

He knows this is the worst time to attempt a conversation with her, but he doesn't have any choice. He sneaks out of the Academy, goes back to the lab where his stepfather's recently rebuilt Davenporter is, and then uses it to transport himself to the mission site to half find her and half help out.

Over the com set that he's taken with him, along with a few other mission gears, he overhears that the team of six has split into two groups: Adam, Bree and Jack at the location two hundred thirty five miles away, where they suspect the explosive is, and Chase, Charlie and Amaranth at the dense lakeside forest where he now stands.

He listens carefully to their conversations. With only fifteen minutes left on the clock, he decides to wait out until the mission is over before he looks for her. Right now, he's just dodging them, making sure that none of them knows he's there so he doesn't interrupt.

_"I've searched through the whole perimeter here, but I didn't find anything,"_ Bree reports.

_"I didn't pick up anything either,"_ Jack says.

_"Are we even sure that there's a bomb here? What if the guys who sent it are just playing a prank?"_ Adam asks, obviously bored and tired of the search.

_"We can't take our chances. If there really is one somewhere here, it can hurt the rangers who are out here to help us. And in that place where you're in, Adam – it can hurt more people,"_ Chase says.

Adam sighs. _"Yeah, I know. Sorry."_

_"Charlie, any news?" _Chase asks.

_"No. Just trees, trees and more trees,"_ Charlie says.

_"Amaranth?"_

_"Nothing in here, too," _she says.

Leo keenly listens to his surroundings. At the same time, he keeps his eyes open for anything suspicious. Like Adam, he's getting somewhat anxious to find what they're all looking for so they can get out of there. Talk to Amaranth first, and then get out of there.

_"Chase, what if I use my sound manipulation to act as a sonar? That way we can find it easier," _Amaranth suggests.

Chase is silent for a second before he says, _"That's a great idea, but with your frequency range it might trigger it to go off. Just keep searching. Where are you anyways?"_

Amaranth says nothing for a while, and it makes Leo somewhat nervous. Then he hears behind him, "What are you doing here?"

Leo turns around in surprise and finds her frowning at him.

_"Amaranth? Who's that? Who did you see?"_ Chase asks, somewhat alarmed.

Amaranth says nothing. She just stares at Leo and waits until he answers his brother's question.

He sighs. "Hi, Chase," he says, busted.

_"Leo?"_ his siblings say in unison.

_"What are you doing here?"_ Chase asks, now highly upset.

"Well, I heard that you guys were going to Europe, and I came here to join the party!" he says with a hopeful grin. "Well, actually, just Chase's party, if you know what I mean."

_"How did you even get here?"_

"Big D's teleporter."

A sigh. _"I'm calling Mr. Davenport…"_

_"Twelve minutes left, Chase,"_ Bree reminds him.

_"…_After_ the mission is over,"_ Chase amends. _"You're going to be in so much trouble."_

Leo can only imagine the punishments his parents are going to give him when he comes back, but he can't do anything about it now. So instead, he just turns off his com set and makes the best out of what he has. He turns his attention back to Amaranth, who has turned off hers, too. "Can we talk after this?" he asks.

She shakes her head. "No."

"Please? Just one minute, before we go home. Just hear me out," he pleads.

"No. I don't want to talk to you anymore," she says resolutely. Leo can read anger in her features, but he can also see the sadness Bob told him about. In a milder tone, she says, "You should probably get out of here. Find Chase. Charlie's close by, and he's going to be upset if he sees you."

"Amaranth—"

She again vanishes in a mist.

He groans then whines. This geo-leaping thing is really making it hard for him to catch up to her. He briefly wonders if this is even worth the frustration. He's so limited to his humanness, and she's able to do much more. This misunderstanding alone has been requiring him triple the effort to resolve, which he doesn't even seem remotely close to achieving. How much harder will it be if the situation is more complex?

But he remembers that, with all good things, hard work will always be required. It was the case with the assessment. Though he failed that one, it shouldn't deter him from giving the chance for just one conversation with her his all. She's worth it, so he's not going to let himself fail this time.

He turns on his com set before making his way towards the lake.

_"I know. Just stay in there, just in case. You have more people to worry about there than we do here," _he hears Chase saying.

_"Okay," _Bree says.

The conversation lays static for a while.

Then, Charlie speaks, _"Chase, Amaranth and I are by the lake. We found it."_

Knowing that he's closer, Leo heads towards them.

_"On my way there. Bree?"_

_"Just need to get Adam and Jack. We're coming."_

_"Okay. We still have roughly eight minutes to disable it."_

_"Uh…" _Amaranth starts nervously, _"we don't. There's only a minute and a half left on the clock."_

_"What?"_

_"It's a trap," _Chase tells them as he realizes it. _"Bree, get the rangers out of here."_

_"On it."_

_"Charlie?"_

_"I'll try to disable it," _he says.

Amaranth gasps. _"Wait, no, Charlie–" _There is a loud thump then a crash. _"Charlie!"_

Leo runs and wishes at that moment that he had Bree's super speed.

_"Amaranth, what happened?"_ Chase asks.

_"They've set something around the explosive, and – Charlie's knocked out," _Amaranth reports in distress.

Barely a minute left, Leo thinks.

_"Just get out of there," _Chase instructs.

Leo reaches the lakeside just in time to see Amaranth sitting by Charlie, holding onto him, mist appearing and then disappearing around her. "I can't," she replies quietly, disheartened as she sees the negative effect of her strong emotions. "My bionics are glitching."

_"Bree—"_

_"Chase, I can't!"_

"No. There's not enough time. Others come first," Amaranth says firmly, realizing then that she and her older brother are about to die.

_"Amaranth, no!" _

_"No, Jack—"_

_"Let me go, Adam! My siblings are in there!"_

_"Chase! Where are you?"_

_"Bree, get them first—"_

With a few seconds left, Leo runs in between Amaranth, Charlie and the explosive. He holds out his right hand despite knowing that he's taking a risk.

When the explosive goes off, he activates his energy transference and absorbs all the energy. It's a terrifying spectacle, one that he has the front seat to, seeing all the angry flames and the results of chemical reaction swirling and zooming towards his hand as if he's holding a vortex. There's too much of it, although, he can tell, because his arm is starting to tingle in a very excruciating way, but he sticks to it until all is gone even if he can feel some things inside him rupturing and his hearing suddenly ebbing out.

He then concentrates all of the energy he has absorbed into a sphere, like he has learned from his trainings with Douglas. He forms it until it has completely encapsulated the energy he can't neutralize. Then, using his super strength, he hurls it far to the middle of the lake.

As soon as the sphere touches the surface, the unstable energy it holds explodes, causing the water to curve then ripple into big waves that lessen in volume as it travels to the shore. Leo shields his face as droplets spray around them. The echo that the reaction created is loud, but he doesn't hear any of it. All that comes to him is that shrill monotonous ringing.

He soon brings his arm down slowly and sees the damage his action has inflicted on him. Burns and blisters riddle the skin on his right arm. Underneath, it feels like his bones have been burnt. He looks at his other hand as he turns around. Blotches of deep purple and red bloom under his skin, along where his veins are.

He lifts his eyes up to find Amaranth gazing at him in horror. She says his name, but he doesn't hear. The only other sound to fill his ears is his own breathing, now labored as his insides twitches just to function.

As too much pain overcomes him, his brain automatically shuts him down. He falls to the ground with a thump.

The last vision he sees is of Chase rushing towards him, with Adam and Bree emerging from the forestry behind, before he lost consciousness.

* * *

He wakes up to a beeping sound overhead.

He slowly blinks back the haze in his eyes and the fog inside his head.

The first sight he sees is the off-white walls, and it tells him that he's in his room at the quarters.

The first observation he makes is that his body, especially his right side, feels unusually heavy, and it tells him that something is wrong. It causes him to panic slightly.

Looking down, he finds that he's wearing the blue and gray shirt his aunt Janice gave him last year when she visited, the one that came with the plaid pajama set. From under the left side of his collar, there's something plastic sticking out, and he can feel wires taped around it. He guesses it must be recording his vitals, letting whoever's watching from the outside know how he's doing.

He examines his right side next, and sees his sleeve rolled up to accommodate a metallic gauntlet binding his forearm. He checks his left arm and finds that it, too, has the curious device on. In fear that he has lost both of his arms this time, he tries to move his fingers to see if they're still there.

He feels them moving though weakly.

"You're awake!"

He looks up and sees Bree coming into the room with a huge grin, Chase and Adam walking in right behind her.

He releases a breath he didn't know he was holding, because seeing them lets him know that he's really safe.

Adam excitedly holds up a newspaper and says, "Look, Leo! You're dead!"

He examines the front page. He doesn't understand the words on it, but he recognizes the picture in the middle. It's of the lake at the mission site.

With a smirk and a roll of her eyes, Bree snatches the paper away from Adam.

"Miscommunication," Chase explains to his brother. "Mr. Davenport tried to tell to the authorities there that you were badly hurt, but his very nervous interpreter told them, and I quote, you 'were badly died.'"

His brows wrinkle. "How long have I been out?" he asks, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"A week," Bree says.

"A _week_?"

"Yeah. You nearly killed yourself with what you did," Bree says.

He glances at the gauntlet on his right arm. "He didn't turn me into a cyborg this time, did he?" he asks seriously.

Adam grins.

Bree and Chase chuckle. "No," Chase says. "Douglas and Mr. Davenport placed the gauntlets on you as compressions and to track how you're healing. Even though you were able to neutralize and expel most of the energy from the blast, your body still absorbed some of it. Thankfully, the amount wasn't very lethal, but it did fry the bionic circuitry on your right arm. It also ruptured veins on your left and on some of your organs."

Adam smiles at his youngest brother, and it's evident through it that what happened has given him a scare. "Yeah. We really thought we were going to lose you there, buddy," he tells him.

He smiles back apologetically. Something that Chase said then replays in his head, and it pulls out the expression from his face. "So – does that mean I'm not bionic anymore?" he asks him.

"No! I mean, no, it doesn't mean that but yes, you're still bionic," Chase says with a laugh. "Like the first time when your arm got…you know, Douglas still used the same components to fix what's been destroyed."

"So I still have all three abilities."

"Yeah. Three." Then Chase mutters, "For now."

He stares at him. He knows there's something that his older brother isn't telling him, but he decides to save that conversation for a later time when he has enough energy to react properly. Turning to Bree, he asks, "How's Amaranth and Charlie? Are they okay?"

"Amaranth's fine. Charlie's still recovering, but he's okay, too. His siblings have been giving him the superstar treatment ever since we came back," Bree replies.

Adam laughs. "Oh, speaking of superstar treatment…" he nods at the bedside table.

Leo turns his head to where his brother directed him to look. Different objects cluster that side of the room. In there are balloons, flowers, a surfboard with messages and names signed on it, candy bars from the cafeteria, melted _trays_ from the cafeteria, seashells and other smaller things that he can't really see from where he is.

"Jack's been telling his siblings about what happened during the mission," Adam explains. "That's just their way of saying thank you for saving Amaranth and Charlie."

Leo looks back at the random items. This time, a small curl pulls at his lips.

Bree's brows softly knit when an inquiry comes to mind. "Leo? What were you really doing at the mission site?" she asks.

Leo regards her blankly. He then blinks in surrender. "I wanted to talk to Amaranth," he confesses.

"Why? And why didn't you just wait until she comes back?"

He sighs. "The situation here wasn't really ideal," he says. "And I needed to talk to her because I just wanted to know if what...someone…told me is true."

"What someone told you?"

"That she likes me," he answers awkwardly.

His siblings exchange glances.

Then, "Someone needs to take a social class next semester," Adam singsongs, grinning.

Leo frowns. "Huh?"

"Man, the whole school knows that Amaranth has a crush on you," Chase says, laughing again. "Even our family knows! You've spent almost every day with her, how – How could _you_ not know?"

He's as stunned as when Bob told him about it. He also feels embarrassed. He stammers, "Well, I – I didn't think that she likes me, and I thought she was just helping me out with leveling up with the assessment, but then I stayed at green, but I know I still had to help her with the person she likes and – I was still trying to get over what happened with Janelle, okay? And—ah!"

Bree eases him back down as he huffs in pain. "Okay, okay, settle down. We get it," she assures him.

Wincing, he looks up at his sister. "Why didn't you guys tell me?" he asks.

"It's not my place to tell," Bree tells him simply.

Chase raises his hand and says, "In my defense, I thought you guys were already dating."

Adam shrugs. "Didn't really know until she told me herself," he says.

He breathes out and realizes that he's starting to feel very tired.

Chase's features wrinkle. "Wait. You said you stayed at green?"

He wants to say 'yes,' but he's too winded so he just nods.

Chase shakes his head. "That's not possible. I did your assessment myself. You're ranked as Advanced," he says. He looks at Adam. "Didn't you give him his new uniform?"

"Yeah! I put it in his locker by the Training Center," Adam says.

Chase glares at him. "Adam. He doesn't _have_ a locker. He lives with us."

Adam ponders over it. Then, he chuckles. "Oh, yeah," he says, nodding. "I think I accidentally put it in Donovan's locker. I was wondering why he's an orange when his aim is so bad."

Bree narrows her eyes. "He's almost twice Leo's size. Wouldn't it have looked awkward on him?"

Adam hitches a shoulder. "Yeah, but the dude's been bench pressing weights non-stop, so."

Bree narrows her eyes more but soon decides to shake the thought off.

Leo's almost halfway back to sleep when his siblings address him again. "You're still barely at the safe zone, Leo. Why don't you wait for another week to talk to Amaranth?" Bree asks.

He shifts. "But if I don't talk to her now, she might not talk to me again," he answers blearily.

Chase gets up from his seat. "She'll talk to you, I promise," he tells his brother. "Just go back to sleep."

Adam says something, but it doesn't register to him. He's already softly snoring by the time the sentence is finished.

Seeing that he's out, his siblings leave him, Chase turning down the lights for his little brother before closing the door behind him.

* * *

He does a lot of sleeping during the next week and a half, but he also does a lot of getting better.

As Chase has said, going to the mission unauthorized gets him in serious trouble. His parents hold back when they talk to him, but he can see in his mother's eyes that he's done something that incurred her wrath. It's in a raincheck for now, while he's still not very well, but she says that he will be cashing in on it in about a month's time. He's moved to fake out being sick when that day arrives, but she's his mother, and more than likely it won't work, so he just prepares himself for whatever will come his way.

Still, he apologizes to them, because he owes them that.

Douglas comes in pretty regularly to help him with gaining mobility, a physical therapy of sorts. He's not as frantic as his parents, but Leo can tell during the sessions that his step-uncle didn't like what he did either. He tells him, too, that he's sorry, but Douglas just replies with a grumble and a "Just don't do it again." Douglas is not sold, especially because from time to time he gets to watch his step-nephew struggle with the effects of the damages, and Leo knows that, but at least it's a start.

The students, on the other hand, have a more positive approach when they visit him. Under Bree's supervision, Charlie, Miles, Miller and Spin are the first ones to visit him. It starts off awkward at first, but once the words 'thank you' and 'I'm sorry' come out from both camps, everything goes much smoother. Bob, Jack and Amaranth visit him the next day. Amaranth sits back and lets her brothers talk, but from the smile she gives him, Leo knows that they're okay and that he'll get to straighten everything out with her when he's ready.

Once Douglas gives him clearance, _only to attend the afternoon classes_, he rejoins everyone at the Academy Tuesday after lunch. He's a bit nervous, walking in with that specialized crutch, the arm compression sleeves, and a limp. His only source of confidence, really, falls on the orange patches that now sit on his shoulders.

However, when he gets circled by nearly everyone as soon as he sits down at his regular table, all of them asking him how he is and telling him how they've been waiting for him to come back, he discovers that his anxiety has been baseless.

Three days later, while the rest is inside preparing for the now monthly movie night in town, he finds himself sitting at the beach, staring out to the waters ahead. Beside him is Amaranth, quietly observing the birds flying miles away with the binoculars Chase had let her borrow.

He looks down on the black and yellow shoes sitting in between them before glancing at the green patches on her uniform then the orange on his. "There's something vaguely stoplight-ish going on here," he observes astutely.

She turns her eyes to what he's looking at. "Oh, yeah," she says. She picks up her shoes and then slips it back on. She beams, "There. Much better."

He smiles back. The silence between them is comfortable, and he almost doesn't want to disturb it, but his words, all built up for weeks now, do not allow him to just sit by. He almost died just trying to talk to her, and to rescind that chance now would plainly not make any sense. "I'm sorry I hurt you," he tells her. "I'm just… I guess there were a lot of things going on that I wasn't really thinking clearly."

She puts down the binoculars. The smile comes back to her face when she tells him, "Okay."

"Okay." He scratches his head awkwardly. "Oh, by the way, uh, Bob and my siblings told me something."

She tilts her head curiously.

"And you'll probably find it funny, but, uh…" he stalls, and he feels like a coward trying to avoid the topic like this. He takes a few seconds to gather any courage he can take a hold of, any that hasn't yet hidden from him yet, before continuing. He chuckles to diffuse his nervousness. "They told me you like me?"

She stares at him, as if asking why that would be funny.

He's known it, has suspected it, and has been told it, but hearing it from her (or, actually, seeing it) makes an entirely different impact. He's in that emotional tilt-a-whirl again, but this time he's spinning within a ride that makes him feel, well, awesome. Words, phrases and sentences rush up to his mouth, but he restrains them to prevent himself from babbling. He pores over them, picks the right ones, and uses those to further the conversation. "Ah. Okay. So you do," he says.

She chuckles. "Bob told me you didn't know while you were out. Kinda made sense, why you're trying to pair me with Adam then Chase."

He nods. "Did Bob also tell you that I like you back?"

Now she's the one who's surprised.

He grins. "Oh, good. It's kind of something I wanted to tell you myself," he says. He takes in a breath then releases it. He's set on telling her again that he likes her, but then he remembers something: three years ago, on this day, he took Janelle on their first date.

That memory doesn't hold any special place in him anymore, but at the same time he doesn't want to start a new relationship on the same date his former one began. He doesn't want Amaranth to live in the shadows of his past one. He wants her to have her special date and special memories, because she's worthy of all of it. She deserves all the perks of being in a relationship with someone starting over again and who will definitely make sure that everything will work this time.

"Amaranth," he says, "I like you a lot, but – do you mind waiting just a little bit longer before we start this? There's some more pulling myself together that I kinda have to do. It's not going to take me forever, I promise! But, I just need some time."

She smiles, and he catches a glimpse of that happiness that he's now sure he'll get to see frequently. "I've waited for months. I think I can handle waiting a little bit longer," she tells him.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." Later, she grins as she looks into her binoculars. "By the way, on that first day you talked to me?" she says. "I _was_ staring at you because you're beautiful."

He looks at her, and then he laughs, unknowingly bringing about an anticipation of what their future will bring now that it's filled with at least one bright prospect to look forward to.

* * *

Almost a month later, three weeks after summer began, they go on their first date at an event in downtown San Francisco, thus becoming the second couple to have formed at the Academy (Miller and Caitlin's cousin, both of whom had kept in contact with each other since prom, became official two days beforehand).

* * *

_END._


End file.
